Pastel Butter x Spider (Maternal Incubation)

[blackfish707]

Updates? How are momma and eggs???

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[meowmeowkazoo]

Actually my next female is due in a couple of days, not weeks, LOL.

Charlotte seems to be doing fine, I will get a picture today and post it up. Today is Day 45.

[meowmeowkazoo]

My only concern at this point is that a few of the eggs seem small and shrunken. None of them are bad or rotting, but a few seem smaller than the others. I can't fathom how a baby ball python could come out of eggs that small, but the others seem normal sized. Hoping there won't be issues with yolk absorption due to water loss.

[SquamishSerpents]

Are the shells hard or still leathery/pliable?

[meowmeowkazoo]

Are the shells hard or still leathery/pliable?

The shells of the shrunken ones feel a bit hard and stiff. When I press harder they give, but I wouldn't call them pliable.

[meowmeowkazoo]

Considering whether I should remove the eggs to an incubator so that I can add water to the shrunken ones.

[meowmeowkazoo]

So I went ahead and put some damp moss on the eggs while Charlotte was distracted with a soft fur. Problem is, when I checked back on her she had uncoiled the eggs completely. I'm wondering if adding the moss made her uncomfortable or if she's simply less interested in incubating so close to the hatch date. If she doesn't wrap them back up in a few hours, I am going to remove them and put them in an incubator to finish things up.

[SquamishSerpents]

Another thought (I know we talked on FB) when they get closer to hatching, I know they give off a bit more heat than usual. Are they temping any higher than they have been?

I wonder if it's just getting close to hatch time...don't they usually coil them a lot looser?

Or do you mean she left the nest completely?

[meowmeowkazoo]

Another thought (I know we talked on FB) when they get closer to hatching, I know they give off a bit more heat than usual. Are they temping any higher than they have been?

I wonder if it's just getting close to hatch time...don't they usually coil them a lot looser?

Or do you mean she left the nest completely?

Last night she left it completely, today she is loosely circling the nest, not in contact with any of the eggs at all. I will have to temp them once I wake up a bit more, and figure out where to go from here. Hatching at 50 days would seem a bit early to me.

[meowmeowkazoo]

Okay, so.

I've got the incubator heating up, and will be removing the eggs in an hour or two, after temperatures are stable.

I want to thank everyone for their support and interest in this project. It means a lot to me. In a way, I feel like I've failed you all, and this decision was one that I struggled with for days. In the end, I feel that the eggs will be better off in an incubator until they hatch. This was a preventable decision, and I feel badly that I didn't put enough foresight into this process to succeed.

I'll be happy to answer any questions that I didn't anticipate in this post.

1) Why am I removing the eggs?

Because Charlotte has stopped wrapping them, and the temperature of the eggs is unstable (one is at 85 degrees, another is at 88 degrees).

2) Is this a reason not to do maternal incubation or something that can typically be expected to happen with MI?

Absolutely not. I feel that the reason Charlotte has abandoned the nest is due to my own mistakes. Adding the damp moss disturbed her, and I feel that in general I have been too attentive toward her and the nest. I've made her uncomfortable, and that is something that could have easily been avoided.

3) How will I prevent this from happening in the future?

Next year I will have a much better setup for MI. I underestimated how hard it would be to keep humidity up in an arid state like Utah. Charlotte is in a poorly-made rack that lets a lot of humidity escape. Next year my brooding females will be in a professional rack, and I may even put the maternally incubating females in tubs with lids.

4) Is this an issue that other people should prepare for?

I don't believe this will be an issue for most people who want to try maternal incubation. Keep in mind the humidity of where you live, and be prepared to adjust the brooding female's enclosure as necessary. These adjustments should be done BEFORE she lays eggs, as doing so afterward can result in her leaving the nest (as happened here).

5) What would I have done differently to succeed at maternal incubation?

Next time (and yes, there will be a next time), I will be more careful and aggressive with keeping humidity at acceptable levels. If I had set up the nest to maintain the proper levels of humidity, I would not have had to disturb it at all, and I believe I would have succeeded with Charlotte. I underestimated how dry Utah is, and the coconut husk and sphagnum moss bedding were not enough. In the future I will use a better rack, or tubs with lids on to maintain humidity. I may also experiment with containers of water crystals near the heat source, or containers of plain water if I can figure out a way to keep them secure.